The art is replete with patents which are directed to compositions containing boron for various purposes, including, e.g., tracer compositions, incendiary compositions and pyrotechnic compositions. Among such prior art patents are the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,639,984, patented Jun. 17, 1997, INFRARED TRACER COMPOSITION and assigned to Thiokol Corporation. Those patented composition included strontium peroxide and barium peroxide in addition to boron. However, such infrared tracer compositions suffered the defect that barium was a toxic element.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,435, patented Oct. 15, 1991, INFRARED ILLUMINANT AND PRESSING METHOD, issued to L. L. Jones et al. Such patented compositions contained potassium nitrate as well as boron.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,635,130, patented Oct. 21, 2003, PYROTECHNIC COMPOSITION FOR PRODUCING IR-RADIATION, and assigned to Diehl Munitionssysteme GmbH & Co KG. Those patented compositions included magnesium in addition to other metals, including boron.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,485,586, 6,409,854; 6,402,864; and 4,915,756 all disclosed compositions which included titanium as well as boron. However, those compositions suffered the defects that the titanium also generated visible light and that they did not produce a cool IR trace.
Examples of patented pyrotechnic compositions comprising boron which did not produce a cool IR trace include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,978,400; 4,406,228; and 3,695,951.
Examples of patented pyrotechnic compositions comprising boron but also containing toxic materials include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,480,489 4,204,895; and 3,475,237.